The 10th meeting of the BIMSTEC Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) that is kicking off in the capital today is expected to finalize a free trade accord on trade in goods.

The TNC meeting will discuss trade issues for enforcement of Free Trade Area (FTA) on trade in goods which will come into force on July 1, 2006.

Issues concerning the countries like rules of origin and dispute settlement will be discussed during the meeting.

“The members will also exchange the list of products, which they will subject to fast track of tariff liberalization indicating that the remaining commodities will be subjected to the normal track of trade liberalization,” according to reports.

After full implementation of BIMST-EC from July 1, 2006, the products and services (excluding the negative list) are to be traded freely in member countries and tariffs would gradually go down, reports quoted a senior official of the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies as saying.

Customs duty in Nepal ranges from five percent to 80 percent. However, after going in for free trade, the customs duty would come down to 0 to five percent in due course of time.

The ministerial meeting held in Bangladesh from December 18 to 19 has chalked out measures for future direction of BIMST-EC.

The ministerial meeting has also recommend adoption of a plan of action on Poverty Alleviation in keeping with the millennium development goals (MDGs).

BIMST-EC, renamed as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri-Lanka and Thailand.